League night results

Last night was not too much fun overall. It started when I got to the bowling center early to bowl a game or two before league to loosen up. I passed Dennis, the GM, as I was walking to the pro shop. He stopped me and said that he just wanted to let me know that there was a problem with the lane machine and they might be kind of f-ed up on the left side tonight. That's not a good thing to hear before even starting. So I decided to try playing a straighter line more outside than I normally play so I could hopefully stay out of a wet-dry situation and keep myself in-play. I've never been very good at killing the ball to play a straighter line, but based on my newly-acquired lane info, I figured it couldn' hurt. I had a really good ball reaction trying to play around 9-10 at the arrows and fade it out to 4-5.
This info is typically useless for league because they run the lanes right before league, which changes the shot that I warm up on. But when league started I figured I would give that line a try for a while to see what I could do with it. Jackpot!!!! I had a great ball reaction. Game 1: 256 with no opens. Game 2 was OK: 224, missed a 10-pin. I rushed to the line and didn't square my shoulders with the shot, WHIFF! Big dummy. Then a guy who used to be an assistant mgr at the bowling center showed up, so I talked to him for awhile which took my mind off bowling in between my shots. I had the front 6 in the third game, then fagged one by the pocket to leave a 3-pin. After that I left a 6-pin, missed it (those squared-up shoulders really are important!), blew out an 8-pin, and limped in the 10th by speeding by the pocket again to leave the 3-5-6, spare-strike for a 234 finish, and a 714 series. While I should be happy with those results, I feel like I couldn't keep my focus, and I could have scored a lot higher.

I was scoring well, but I couldn't get into it because my 4 teammates were gator-wrestling the lanes trying to find some semblance of a decent shot. All I kept seeing was hook, adjust, hook, adjust, push it through the hook, adjust. So I'm striking at will as long as I keep my frickin' head out of my ass, and they can't find anything consistent enough to get something going. I'm never sure whether I should continue to make suggestions as I see them make shots, or if I should just shut up and mind my own business. I keep imagining them thinking, "I'm busting my balls to find any kind of consistent shot, and getting nothing, and he is over there by himself not having to move, adjust, or anything!" There are lots more swear words as adjectives, but I will let the imagination fill in the blanks. Last night didn't seem to be the right time to ask anyone what they thought, so I went with the "shut up" theory. Bron finished strong with a 270 game, but everyone else had over-under, or so it seemed. I quit paying attention halfway through the third game. I didn't figure anyone wanted my advice.

We finished 11-21, which sucked big time. We were only a few points out of first place, and that bad showing dropped us to 4th or 5th place. Given the crappy conditions, we opted not to pre-bowl for next week. We will post-bowl in two weeks. Hopefully the lanes are better by then.